C-Span's Brian Lamb Is Not What You Think

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Forget for a moment about Brian Lamb's trademark gravelly voice, even if it is one of the most distinctive sounds in all of broadcasting.

Forget the C-Span host's Sgt. Joe ("Just the facts, ma'am") Friday-like persona, too.

What makes the 65-year-old Lamb unique is his scary level of news consumption. If this ever became an Olympic event, my money would be on him to bring home nothing less than a silver medal.

He insists that he gets six hours of sleep a night -- "in and out," as he put it. I don't see how.

"I have a radio on all night -- and an earplug," he told me.

Lamb rattled off an astonishingly long list of favorites. "I've listened to Stephanie Miller, Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage, Tom Hartman, Al Franken, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Lars Larson, Jim Bohannon, Rush Limbaugh, John Elliot, Randi Rhodes, 'Coast to Coast (AM) with George Noory.' But, he hastens to add: "I'm not into flying saucers and those kinds of things. I used to listen to Imus. I listen to Bill Press, Fred Grandy and Ed Schultz."

There were others, but I just couldn't take notes fast enough to keep up.

I found it amusing when Lamb griped that he couldn't find a decent TV-news or talk show on the air at five in the morning (I mean, network executives have a tough enough time programming primetime.) But he is satisfied when he can catch Anderson Cooper, Charlie Rose, Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Tucker Carlson, Bill O'Reilly and Neil Cavuto. Brit Hume and Tim Russert remain two of his favorites. "And Oprah!" he said. "She's terrific at what she does."

What's the common thread?

"They're in touch," Lamb commented when we talked on July 13 in Washington. "I'm learning about what they know and like, and don't like."

Lamb could care less about a host's political beliefs. "I don't come at it like an ideologue," he said. "It's all about the information with me."

Chances are if Lamb is awake, he is listening to . After all, the man also professes to have 5,700 songs on his iPod -- "everything from Merle Haggard to Mozart. I'm on 'shuffle' all the time."

Authority

Lamb conducted the first interview on C-Span (technically, the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network) in 1980. Since then, the channel has become known for its nonstop broadcasts of government events and public-affairs programs.

Lamb has long been one of my favorite interviewers. He's patient and asks simple questions. Watching him conduct an hourlong interview reminds me of seeing people putting together a jigsaw puzzle, systematically and with a sense of purpose, as they make sure that one piece will lead logically to the next one.

Of course, C-Span also has been known to fill space with eccentric programming that only a shut-in could appreciate.

If you're a diehard fan of C-Span's coverage of the Parliament meetings of the United Kingdom and Canada, then I apologize to you. All three of you.

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Lamb may be the only individual in Washington, if not the United States of America, who is genuinely not star-struck.

"Who cares if a movie star has an opinion unless the person is very well informed?" he said with disgust. "We're overly interested in having a celebrity culture. Anna Nicole Smith -- who cares? Princess Di, OJ. They're all cultural favorites that TV news has found an audience for."

It shouldn't come as a surprise, then, that Lamb disdains participating in the celebrity game. "I've been invited to appear on Letterman, but they wanted me to talk about a funny videotape of Congress. 'Bring us your outtakes!'"

He shook his head. "That's not our job."

Nor -- surprise, surprise -- does Lamb worry about the ratings that obsess his counterparts on commercial TV. When I asked him what has been C-Span's most popular offering yet, he said: "I don't know. We don't 'rate,'" meaning it doesn't get ratingupdates like the commercials networks.

When you ask other network executives to discuss their programming, they'll invariably point to comedies and dramas. As if to underscore the quirky nature of C-Span, Lamb told me: "Our coverage of funerals is popular."

Nixon's the one

Of all the Washingtonians that Lamb has interviewed, one stands out: former President Richard Nixon.

When Nixon visited the C-Span studio in the early 1990s, he "created the biggest crowd of anyone around here," Lamb remembered. "A hundred people were waiting to shake his hand. I've never seen anything like it."

Talking about unusual sightings, I actually saw Lamb get angry on the air.

This happened last week when a caller from Jacksonville, Fla., chastised him for calling President Bush by the everyman handle of "Mr." instead of "president."

Lamb dismissed the caller by saying, "This is silly. I'm not going to argue with you."

It was, but callers frequently try to get inside Lamb's head to know what he is thinking.

Another caller on the same show, with Iraq in mind, asked Lamb, "Are you anti-surge?" Lamb replied: "I'm not pro- or anti-surge. I don't take a particular view."

He doesn't mind the air of mystery that surrounds him.

Some critics suggest that C-Span has a right-wing bias, but Lamb disavows any political agenda. "I vote in every general election, but I'm not a party member or an ideologue. I've never told anyone who I've voted for."

MEDIA WEB QUESTION OF THE DAY: What do you like or dislike about Brian Lamb and C-Span?

FRIDAY STORY OF THE WEEK: "The Halberstam You Didn't Know" by Jim Wooten (Columbia Journalism Review): The author, a lifelong friend of the late David Halberstam, gives a rare insight into what made the journalist and author such an unforgettable figure.

THE READERS RESPOND about my column on Tim Russert: "Like almost all of the mainstream media, he let the Bush administration go unquestioned/challenged in the face of a monstrous lie! Indeed, he was often used as a propaganda machine." Mike Robey

"Nice article about Tim Russert. I like all of the things about him that you listed in your piece. What I do not like about him is how he threw Don Imus under the bus when the I-Man needed support. For someone with so much alleged integrity, he really came off like a wimp and a fair-weather friend." Mick Leonard

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By Jon Friedman